THREE KITTENS born on the stage of a Victorian theatre are on their way to a new home.

The kittens were born in a cardboard box on the stage at Theatr Colwyn on Abergele Road during the redevelopment of the venue.

Their mother, a stray, sought sanctuary in the building to give birth, but was in a distressed state and ran away and hid.

Theatre staff found four kittens in the box when they were just an hour or two old and called in Cats Protection.

Volunteers Janet and Ray Gardener then successfully managed to catch the mum, who was terribly thin and undernourished, but sadly, the fourth kitten died.

The mother cat, named Zeta, and the kittens – a black coloured male called Novello, a black female called Shirley and a tortieshell female called Bassey - all suffered ill health in the early weeks. But now the kittens are healthy and will soon to be on their way to a new home.

Janet Gardener, is a homing officer and cat fosterer with Colwyn and District Cats Protection and has been looking after the kittens and mother cat with her husband Ray, even bottle feeding the kittens.

“The kittens had an infection in their eyes which was treated over a period of weeks and they have now made a full recovery, she said.

“Zeta was so undernourished that on two different occasions she was unable to produce enough milk to feed them, so Ray and I took turns to bottle feed them, every two hours, until she made a full recovery.”

She added: “The great news is that the kittens have now been reserved and will be adopted by a lovely family from Rhos-on-Sea, after their first vaccination.”

Mum Zeta will have to wait a little longer till she is put up for adoption, but Janet doesn’t think it will be long before the beautiful looking cat has a new home too.

Phil Batty, theatre manager, joked: “I never thought our first production at Theatr Colwyn would be Cats! Seriously though, we are all very happy to hear this lovely news that the kittens are so well now and on their way to a new home.

“So many of the burly builders on the day they were found went all soppy over them, concerned about their well-being.”